Unfinished messages

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csanchez
Unregistered guest
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 12:24 pm:   

Hello, i have a problem with 2-way with Trial Version: I've made a program that stores each SMS received into a XML file, but some of them seem to contain unfinished messages. I thought that it was a problem of my application but I found this in the
SMSIN-20040219.LOG:

2004-02-19 13:00:00,+xxxxxxxxxxx,Text,El mensaje para xxxxxxxxx, enviado el 19.02.04 a las 12:56:54 ha sido entregado el 19.02.04 a las 12:57:00.
2004-02-19 13:01:14,+xxxxxxxxxxx,Text,El mensaje para xxxxxxxxx, enviado el 19.02.04 a las 12:58:11 ha sido entregado el 19.02.04 a las 12:58:15.
2004-02-19 13:02:20,+xxxxxxxxxxx,Text,El mensaje para xxxxxxxxx, enviado el 19.02.04 a las 12:59:15 ha sido entregado e¿
2004-02-19 13:11:38,+xxxxxxxxxxx,Text,El mensaje para xxxxxxxxx, enviado el 19.02.04 a las 13:08:35 ha sido entregado el 19.02.04 a las 13:08:38.
2004-02-19 13:12:07,+xxxxxxxxxxx,Text,El mensaje para xxxxxxxxx, enviado el 19.02.04 a las 13:09:03 ha sido entregado el 19.02.04 a las 13:09:07.
2004-02-19 13:14:02,+xxxxxxxxxxx,Text,El mensaje para xxxxxxxxx, enviado el 19.02.04 a las 13:10$


All the messages sent were the same message, but as you can see some of them are unfinished and have strange characters at the end.

Those messages where sent by the SMS Server, as all of them are delivery confirmations. The receiver phone is a WAVECOM.

csanchez
Unregistered guest
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 02:12 pm:   

Additional information:
The same thing happens if i left an empty command table in two way and so the messages go to the SMS-IN folder.
application/x-zip-compressedpackets from the SMS-IN folder
SMS-IN-PACKETS.zip (0.7 k)
csanchez
Unregistered guest
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 03:16 pm:   

I've been looking at a recent post of 'Annymous' who has the same problem that I have
(http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/2765.html).

I've activated debug and tried to send 4 messages, and received 4 answers from the SMS Server. I send attached th ZIP file with the four .SMS files (3 of them are corrupted) and the debug file.
application/x-zip-compressedDebug and .SMS files
DEBUG.zip (2.6 k)
csanchez
Unregistered guest
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 04:43 pm:   

Finally I will answer myself: the problem was the wavecom equipoment, or the 15 pin to 9 pin converter cable I was using. I'm now using another wavecom modem with another cable and, by now, problems with messages has gone.
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 1923
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2004 - 12:19 am:   

csanchez,

I'm glad you were able to figure the problem out, but I'm even happier that you posted follow-up information about what you found.

I think the other message thread that you were referring to is this one:

http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/2704.html

The only time I can recall seeing this type of truncated message problem in the past, it was a problem with the cable, so I'm glad to hear this seems to be the case here.

For anyone searching here and finding this thread, the SMSDEBUG.LOG above is a good indicator of either a problem cable, problem modem, or possibly even a dodgy serial port in the computer.

When NowSMS parses the received message, it logs how many characters are anticipated in the message text. On your truncated message, this length was always significantly longer than the actual message text received. That suggests data is getting dropped on the path between the modem and the computer.

-bn
csanchez
Unregistered guest
Posted on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 04:02 pm:   

I have a suggestion about this for future releases of NowSMS: as you know how many characters are supposed to follow you may change the extension of the files from .SMS to .ERR if something strange happens. Also you can add a parameter for two-way application in the style of @@MSGLENGTH@@ so external applications can also check if some information is missing (now you can't detect that kind of failures, so if somehow the cable or the modem gets damaged the applicattion cannot detect it and generate alarms for the administrators).